Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis – University Librarieshttps://library.wustl.edu
Washington University in St. LouisTue, 26 Sep 2017 20:36:44 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2Save the Date! Launch Partyhttps://library.wustl.edu/save-date-launch-party/
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 20:00:18 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=35045Mark your calendar for October 11, 2017, 7:00 pm and join us at the Missouri History Museum for the official Launch Party for Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis. Since May 2016 work has been underway to document over 750 locations that are part of LGBTQ history in the St. Louis region. Many people have contributed to […]

Since May 2016 work has been underway to document over 750 locations that are part of LGBTQ history in the St. Louis region. Many people have contributed to this project, and we want to celebrate this community effort. Work on the maps is now in the final stages, and it will be publicly shared for the first time at the October Launch Party. Hope to see you there!

]]>Letter to ONE, from St. Louishttps://library.wustl.edu/letter-one-st-louis/
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 21:00:17 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=32161In 1958, a St. Louis resident who identified himself as “Mr. H” wrote to the editors of ONE, the first LGBTQ magazine ever published in the United States. Below is the text of his letter: Dear Don Slater: I am writing you to tell of the good that I am getting out of ONE. I […]

]]>In 1958, a St. Louis resident who identified himself as “Mr. H” wrote to the editors of ONE, the first LGBTQ magazine ever published in the United States. Below is the text of his letter:

Dear Don Slater:

I am writing you to tell of the good that I am getting out of ONE. I have enjoyed the articles on “Successful Homosexuals.” It makes me happy to hear that some of us can stand up for our rights and lead normal lives. I have many “straight” friends who tell me that the way I live is my own business and because I am gay is no reason to dissolve friendships.

We shouldn’t try to force this thing down people but, on the other hand, we shouldn’t let them walk all over us. My family has known about me since I was thirteen. I am thirty-one now [in 1958]. None of them have turned me down and they also accept my gay friends. There are one hundred and fifty employees where I work and they all respect me for being a gentleman. If I didn’t hold myself as a human being should I wouldn’t still be on the payroll.

Mr. H

St. Louis, Missouri

Sources to learn more about LGBTQ people in the 1940s and 1950s are scarce, so even small glimpses offered by a short letter such as this are exceptionally valuable.

ONE, February 1, 1958. Accessed via Independent Voices.

This items was located thanks to the keyword search-ability provided by the Independent Voices, “a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.” Between 2014 and 2017 university libraries and private donors across the country provided over a million dollars to make these publications freely available online.

]]>Where was that? : Using travel guides to reconstruct LGBTQ historyhttps://library.wustl.edu/using-travel-guides-reconstruct-lgbtq-history/
Fri, 26 May 2017 19:50:37 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=31337A key challenge as we researched Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis was locating street addresses. Since many bars and restaurants were well known to locals, our researchers often found only vague references to places, such as “PK’s across the river” or “Betty’s on the south side.” Few people now, let alone from 30 years ago, remember […]

]]>A key challenge as we researched Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis was locating street addresses. Since many bars and restaurants were well known to locals, our researchers often found only vague references to places, such as “PK’s across the river” or “Betty’s on the south side.” Few people now, let alone from 30 years ago, remember the street address of their favorite bar. However, Graphical Information Systems (GIS) need precise data — a street address or intersection of cross-streets, city, state, and zip code.

Enter the travel guides

A key source for this specific data were small guidebooks originally published for gay and lesbian travelers. These books functioned in a similar way to the Green Book which helped African-American travelers find welcoming hotels, restaurants, and services in the 1930s-1960s. While no one source of information provides an accurate picture of the past, for anyone conducting a mapping or place-based history of LGBTQ life in the USA, travel guides are an invaluable and highly recommended source of data.

Damron’s Legacy

In 1964 Bob Damron’s Address Book became the first published yearly directory listing establishments frequented by and friendly to gay men. The concept was popular and often copied by other publishers. Online access to digitized copies at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archive in California are available at the library via the LGBT Thought and Culture database (on-campus or proxy logon required). The St. Louis LGBT History Project also provided PDF copies of the illustrated Damron Travel Atlas.

St. Louis, Damron Atlas, 1992

Courtesy of the Gerber/Heart Archives in Chicago, we received PDF copies of pages for Missouri and Illinois (excepting Chicago) for the Guild Guide (1965, 1968, 1970), Eros Gay Guide (1974), and Gaia’s Guide (1977 – 1992). These first two were direct competitors to Damron. The later, Gaia’s, focused on locations of interest to lesbians, including identifying women-only spaces.

From Guide to Data

The guides are organized by city, so locating our needed street addresses was fairly simple. They are yearly, allowing us to determine when a bar or tavern was in operation. They also had errors, which we discovered as data was compiled and entered into the spreadsheets. Most commonly, the location would continue to be included in the next year’s book, despite closing. In a few cases there were just mistakes — such as several years of Damrons listing “Betty’s” at Shenandoah and Compton, several blocks away from the correct location at cross-streets Shenandoah and California. In these cases we relied on newspaper accounts, telephone book listings, and oral histories to confirm the correct data.

Pages from Damron 1974, including incorrect listings.

Adding context

We carefully evaluated the descriptions and classifications provided in the guides. Publishers used an elaborate system of codes to indicate the type of people, activities, and general atmosphere travelers would encounter. Since the publishers presumed the majority of readers would be white, race was only indicated if a place had African-American patrons. Similarly, while Damron did include some mentions of bars “popular with girls” it was, until the 1990s, directed at a male (white) reader. And complicating this were yearly changes to the meaning of abbreviations and stars.

Deeply considering the meaning of what was, and was not, listed in these descriptions allowed us to extrapolate even further data.

]]>A Research Experiencehttps://library.wustl.edu/a-research-experience/
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:57:46 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=28648by Wendy Lu (WU Class 2018) As a research assistant on the Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis Project, I have been conducting archival research in the Special Collections Department here on Washington University’s campus. I’ve been going through several boxes from the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and researching a legal challenge against the St. Louis “masquerading” […]

As a research assistant on the Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis Project, I have been conducting archival research in the Special Collections Department here on Washington University’s campus. I’ve been going through several boxes from the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and researching a legal challenge against the St. Louis “masquerading” ordinance from the 1980’s. Ordinance 15.30.010 of the Revised Code of the City of St. Louis prohibits people from appearing either in “a state of nudity or in a dress not belonging to his or her sex or in an indecent or lewd dress” and was ultimately overturned due to the ACLU’s challenge.

There have been several things I’m getting used to while working as part of the research team. This is the first time I’ve worked on a project where information can be added after the original deadline and still be of use to anyone other than me. When working on a deadline, sometimes I have to prioritize finishing over the depth of research I might prefer. I like being able to know all the little details of whatever it is I’m studying, and with the “masquerading” ordinance case, I’ve been taking a while to go through all the files because all the information is so interesting and I want to have all the information available for analysis later! However, in the past when I have had research papers due for class that I have not been able to research as thoroughly as I would like, I just turned in a paper that was more limited in scope and then went back and did more research just for fun. With this project, it’s been nice because I can remind myself that what nitty-gritty details I don’t get to cover in this stage of the project might still get covered in additions to the website after the online-launch in the fall.

1984 Article from St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper about enforcement of the law

This has also been the first time I’ve been doing research where there are ethical issues to consider. I’ve never done a research project that exposes me to sensitive information like I have on this project, and I really appreciate having the feedback of the professors and other researchers on the project because I had not considered that certain kinds of information cannot ethically be published in a research project! Information like medical records and booking photos (“mugshots”) are personal and sensitive, and researchers have to consider the implications of making that information readily available to the public. Especially because medical and police records are over-represented in LGBT history, given that these institutions generate the bulk of existing records pertaining to LGBT folk.

The idea that this is not an individual project I am doing, and instead will hopefully span several years and dozens of researchers is so exciting in that the research I am doing now is part of a bigger project. As much as I am currently enjoying working as a research assistant on this project now, I am looking forward to being able to read about what other undergraduate researchers have helped find years after I have left the project.

]]>Fast-forwarding through history: reflections from a researcherhttps://library.wustl.edu/fast-forward/
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 22:34:09 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=28252by Kristi Hagen (WU Class of 2018) I joined the Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis Project in the fall of 2016, kicking off my work with a tour of the Central West End with Ian Darnell. I’m currently a junior majoring in anthropology, and minoring in history. I had taken Queer Histories with Professor Friedman my […]

I joined the Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis Project in the fall of 2016, kicking off my work with a tour of the Central West End with Ian Darnell. I’m currently a junior majoring in anthropology, and minoring in history. I had taken Queer Histories with Professor Friedman my freshman year, which helped me in looking at the work involved in this project.

For the first part of my research, I went through the Gay News-Telegraph to record the spaces used by LGBTQ people. This helped give me a clearer picture of St. Louis LGBTQ history. As I focused on the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was hard not to get affected at seeing the rise of AIDS, even documented in a supposedly impersonal source as a newspaper. There were articles about the latest research, of outrage at the administration, listings of new organizations, pictures of the Memorial Quilt, and ads and obituaries taken out by friends of those who passed. While my goal was to write down the locations in which events and organizations met, I found myself time and time again drawn into these pieces of history.

The Gay News-Telegraph, 1981

Going through many years of the same newspaper is like fast-forwarding through history. I saw elections pass, community events and celebrations held, movies and books discussed, and organizations formed. I knew some of the outcomes ahead of the writers (no, Michael Dukakis will not become president) and at the same time was surprised by much more.

I then started working on gathering information on coverage of Miss Fannie’s Ball, which was a drag ball in the African American community held on Halloween night. My work involved looking at three of St. Louis’ black newspapers (the Sentinel, the Argus, and the American) around the time of Halloween, every year between 1950 and 1980. This was the first time I ever used microfilm, and I quickly grew to love the sound of the rewind and fast-forward. It felt like I was going on a quest through history, trying to find an advertisement, an article, or a photograph. Boredom can come up as you go through the motions of putting in microfilm, only to find no coverage that year. And so the years when there was a photo or an ad were all the more exciting.

1960 advertisement for Miss Fannie’s Ball, from the St. Louis Argus newspaper

Through this research, I came to better understand the relationship between the wider African American community and the black LGBTQ subculture. The fact that the event was covered at all, and was always covered in a positive light, suggests that the relationship was more complex than that of outright homophobia from the black community. In the end, I came away with a more nuanced understanding of what social life was like during this time period.

]]>AIDS in the Metro-East Area: The Politics of Treatment, Care, and Housinghttps://library.wustl.edu/aids-metro-east-area-politics-treatment-care-housing/
Fri, 03 Feb 2017 18:43:51 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=24189A reflection by Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis research assistant, Karisa Tavassoli (WU Class of 2016): While researching this summer at the Belleville Illinois Public Library I came across an assortment of newspaper clippings filed under the heading “Bellev. AIDS Home Hospice,” which offers some interesting perspectives on a world-wide epidemic through the lens of local […]

While researching this summer at the Belleville Illinois Public Library I came across an assortment of newspaper clippings filed under the heading “Bellev. AIDS Home Hospice,” which offers some interesting perspectives on a world-wide epidemic through the lens of local history. Our Place and Bethany’s Place both had a goal of serving people with HIS/AIDS, but the history of each is quite a contrast.

Our Place

In 1989 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois filed the first lawsuit in the nation under the Fair Housing Act in order to protect people with AIDS. That same year Charles Baxter converted a doctor’s office into a home called “Our Place” in Belleville, IL. He designed the home to provide a safe and supportive space that would allow people with AIDS to live and die with dignity and in community, hence the name “Our Place.” The city denied Baxter a permit for the home out of “fear of bringing people from other areas with AIDS into [their] community”. The ACLU assisted Baxter’s efforts and filed a lawsuit against the city for violation of the Fair Housing Act. The city eventually gave Baxter $39,000 of the $200,000 the ACLU fought for. But after paying off all loans and fees to start the home, Baxter was left with only $4,000.

The city created new obstacles to prevent Our Place from operating by classifying the property as commercial rather than residential. This way, the city could fine Our Place for “improper” codes, forcing Baxter to spend more money on the house rather than on care for patients. For example, the city plumbing inspector demanded the removal of three newly installed toilets (the only toilets of a commercial property required to do so), draining hundreds of dollars from Baxter’s personal funds that he was using to run the house.

clipping from Belleville Journal, June 7, 1989, page 1A

Our Place left a lasting impact on the entire metro-east St. Louis and Southern Illinois area. This was a time when the LGBTQ community faced not only the physical, mental, and emotional ramifications of the disease but also the social and financial weight of having to advocate for basic rights and access to care. Our Place gave visibility to the struggle, and not only successfully provided a caring and loving space for people with AIDS, but paved the way for others to develop similar future homes without as many barriers. Baxter had to turn many people down from the house due to lack of space and resources, and the house eventually closed after only two months. The house at 310 S. Illinois St., which operated from September to November of 1989. It was torn down to make way for a parking lot in December of 1990.

Bethany Place

In contrast, Bethany Place, designed for AIDS patients and their friends and families to receive counseling and testing, stayed open for much longer.

In the early 1980s, two Franciscan nuns from Belleville, Sister Thomas and Sister Mary Ellen Rombach, left Illinois to serve and spend time with AIDS patients in the lower west side of Manhattan, NY. At a time when many feared transmission of HIV through casual contact, the two nuns took purposeful steps to combat stigmas surrounding HIV/AIDS, and ultimately concluded that “the real epidemic of AIDS is fear.” They returned to Belleville where they opened Bethany’s Place on 301 W. Lincoln St. in 1988, which then moved to 224 W. Washington St. in 1989. Bethany Place later moved to 821 West A Street and remains the largest non-profit in the Metro-East area of St. Louis that provides HIV prevention and support.

It is important to note that the Christian affiliation and family-focus of Bethany place may have likely allowed the organization to exist under “conservative” (and racist, homophobic, classist, ableist) political structures. Our Place was started by a single man who focused on helping individuals (presumably gay and bisexual men) who had little to no income or possessions after high medical bills. In contrast, Bethany Place did not disrupt any of the power structures that Our Place shook up. Bethany Place perpetuated white Christian values, was not founded by queer folks, and did not have specific language that tied it to serving LGBTQ populations. As we continue to fill in the significant gaps in historical records of LGBTQ communities in southern Illinois/metro-east St. Louis, we must be aware of what organizations and communities were deemed acceptable by the state, and which ones were targeted due to homophobia, racism, classism, and so on. Only then can we more fully understand why certain resources are lacking today.

]]>Unusual Sourceshttps://library.wustl.edu/unusual-sources/
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 18:04:37 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=20189Recently the national podcast Criminal visited the WU library. This audio documentary program was researching The Evening Whirl — one of the archival sources being consulted in Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis. The Evening Whirl is an unique St. Louis newspaper (still in publication) publishing about crime. Often the paper includes events that mainstream news sources […]

]]> Recently the national podcast Criminal visited the WU library. This audio documentary program was researching The Evening Whirl — one of the archival sources being consulted in Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis. The Evening Whirl is an unique St. Louis newspaper (still in publication) publishing about crime. Often the paper includes events that mainstream news sources would not cover, making it one of the few published sources that includes information about African-American LGBTQ St. Louisians.

The mapping projects gets a mention towards the end of this audio documentary:

]]>A Snapshot of St. Louis in the Era of Gay Libhttps://library.wustl.edu/st-louis-ciao-magazine/
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:39:58 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=17528A Snapshot of St. Louis in the Era of Gay Lib: Ciao! Magazine Profiles the Gateway City In June 1974, Ciao!, a pioneering gay travel magazine, published an article on St. Louis. The piece and accompanying photographs offer a fascinating snapshot of the Gateway City in the era of gay liberation. ‘Gay Lib’ In business […]

]]>A Snapshot of St. Louis in the Era of Gay Lib: Ciao! Magazine Profiles the Gateway City

In June 1974, Ciao!, a pioneering gay travel magazine, published an article on St. Louis. The piece and accompanying photographs offer a fascinating snapshot of the Gateway City in the era of gay liberation.

‘Gay Lib’

In business from 1973 to 1980, New York City-based Ciao! mixed erotic photography with articles on the gay scene in cities around the world. The magazine featured travel tips for international destinations as diverse as Moscow, Manila, and Mexico City, as well as many large and midsize US cities. Ciao! projected a sense of irreverent fun and sexual adventure, and it treated gay subject matter with frankness and pride. In many ways, the magazine captured the spirit of the era of gay liberation (or “gay lib”). This period in American LGBTQ history lasted from about the time of the Stonewall Riots in 1969 to the advent of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. These years were characterized by an assertive and self-confident style of gay and lesbian identity and heightened political militancy. For Ciao!, however, gay liberation was less about activist politics than the uninhibited pursuit of pleasure.

Ciao!’s international focus implicitly encouraged its readers think of themselves as part of a global community of people united by a shared sexuality. This perspective gave substance to the popular gay liberation slogan “We Are Everywhere.” Yet Ciao! was mostly written by white gay men for an audience of white gay men with the financial means to travel for leisure. Consequently, it provided a selective portrait of the cities that it profiled, including St. Louis. Predominantly lesbian spaces, such as Betty’s California Bar in South St. Louis, were overlooked. Ciao!’s article on St. Louis also noted if “blacks” or “roughs” frequented a given establishment. Depending on a reader’s tastes in men, this information might either have served as a warning or an enticement. In any case, the spatialized gender, race, and class divides of the gay liberation era are apparent in Ciao!’s coverage.

Ralph W. Davis

The profile of St. Louis was written by a man named Ralph W. Davis (possibly a pseudonym). Davis wrote that he had lived in Missouri in the 1950s and 1960s, and he seems to have kept up to date with recent developments in the state. He paints a mostly flattering picture of the Gateway City. For Davis, it seems, St. Louis exhibited a sort of small-town friendliness, but at the same time was large enough to support a fairly interesting and eclectic gay scene.

Davis also picked up on an air of faded grandeur in the city—an impression shared by many other commentators before and since. “The charm of St. Louis’s historic past can be seen in many of its old buildings and private streets,” Davis writes. “Some of the palatial townhouses along these streets have slipped into decay, but I still conjure up images of a past as colorful, wealthy and proper as Boston.”
In the article, Davis surveys many of St. Louis’s gay and gay-friendly bars, restaurants, bathhouses, bookshops, and cruising areas. He focuses on downtown, East St. Louis, and the Central West End, a neighborhood that was St. Louis’s “gay ghetto” at the time. The article includes photographs of several of the places that Davis describes. In some cases, these photographs are of special value as they are the only known surviving images of these establishments.

St. Louis 1974

Ciao! gives us a glimpse of the Gateway City at the start of the gay lib era. More was to come in later years. Some of the institutions that most exemplify gay liberation in St. Louis—such as the Metropolitan Community Church—were just getting off the ground in the spring of 1974, and others—such as Herbies’ disco and the city’s first gay community center—did not open until later in the decade.

From the article

Below are the photographs from the article, with excerpts from Davis’s descriptions. I have also included information about the current status of the structures depicted in the photographs (current as of October 2016). Note that these are only the establishments that were illustrated; other locations that were featured in the article have not been included here.

Gus’ Midway, 3528 Olive: “One of the three gay spots on the Olive Street/Grand Street area. … It’s a pleasant place to drop by for a few drinks. Some find it a great place to spend the entire evening. Drag shows occasionally. … Tuesday is Free Spaghetti Night. Dancing.”

Golden Gate Coffee House, 3542 Olive: “No hard liquor is served here. Just coffee and soda. Very popular with the young who aren’t old enough to drink. … Some hustling, but management is trying to shake loose of this image.” (The buildings that contained Gus’ Midway and the Golden Gate have both been demolished. Saint Louis University’s Wool Center now takes up most of the south side of the 3500 block of Olive.)

Mr. A’s Potpourri, 4755 McPherson at Euclid: “Very nice and close to the Chase-Park Plaza Hotels. In the afternoon many of the young executive types visit in an atmosphere of informal fun. The evening gets the mod, with-it crowd.” (The building that housed Mr. A’s Potpourri still stands. The space is now occupied by the Central West End location of Pi Pizzeria.)

Bob Martin’s Tavern, 201 S. 20th: “This is the only gay bar open Sunday. … Usually crowded. The Tavern is located in the old Railroad YMCA, and is very close to the train station. Generally the crowd is older (over 35 and somewhat raunchy).” (The old Railroad YMCA building is now a Drury Inn.)

Club One-Fifteen, 115 N. 9th: “This is a rough downtown bar that attracts the semi-retired hustlers and roughs and others. Some gays. Some blacks.” (The building that contained Club One-Fifteen was demolished. The AT&T Center skyscraper now stands on the site.)

Norma’s Lounge, 719 N. 6th: “Just across from the Greyhound Bus Station and gets the expected bus station crowd. It’s mixed.” (The building that housed Norma’s was demolished. The space is now a parking lot adjacent to the Dome at America’s Center.)

Belcher Baths, 407 Lucas: “This baths has been around for years and shows its age. Occasionally a straight slips into the sacred enclosure and brings some real thrills. … It’s next to the Continental Trailways Bus Station.” (The Belcher Bath Hotel building was demolished. A parking garage is now on the site.)

Balaban’s Restaurant and Bar, 405 N. Euclid: “Generally mixed, but a good gay crowd comes here. Very popular.” (The building that housed Balaban’s is intact and until recently was the location of Herbies’ Vintage ’72, a restaurant whose name and style pay homage to Balaban’s and its owner, Herb Balaban Carp.)

World Theater, 506 St. Charles: “Very close to the bus stations, this straight porn movie house attracts the usual types. Balcony is very busy.” (The World Theater building was demolished. The site is now taken up by a parking garage.)

Forest Park at the Cannon: “The cars park on the circle drive here. Also the johns [restrooms] by the golf course and the opera house have some activity.”

All images are from the holdings of the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives in Chicago, Illinois. Thanks to archivist Wil Brant of Gerber/Hart for his assistance with this research.

]]>The Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis Project is happy to welcome three new undergraduate researchers to our team – Kristi Hagen, Molly Brodsky, and Jennifer Chen.

Our semester’s work began September 23 with an orientation session at Olin Library. Ian Darnell presented on the overall story of St. Louis LGBTQ history, and Andrea Friedman and Miranda Rectenwald discussed the research procedures being implemented for the project. Then on Saturday morning Kristi, Molly, and Jennifer met with Ian for a tour of the Central West End and got an on the ground look at significant locations in LGBTQ St. Louis history.

Kristi Hagen, Jennifer Chen, and Molly Brodsky on a tour of the Central West End. At Olive and Taylor. Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, longtime site of Miss Fannie’s ball, in the background. September 24, 2016 (Photo by Ian Darnell)

This semester Molly and Kristi are working on identifying locations and historical information in local gay and lesbian publications, such as The Gay News-Telegraph. Jennifer is working on organizing data collected this summer in preparation for GIS encoding to occur this winter/early spring.

]]>Henry Hampton Film Series: ‘Paris Is Burning’https://library.wustl.edu/henry-hampton-film-series-paris-burning/
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 16:04:14 +0000https://library.wustl.edu/?p=16140Join us for a free screening presented by the Washington University Libraries, Cinema St. Louis, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis LGBT History Project as part of the Henry Hampton Film Series. The screening will be followed by a discussion featuring Steve Brawley of the St. Louis LGBT History Project and performers Leon Braxton […]

Join us for a free screening presented by the Washington University Libraries, Cinema St. Louis, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis LGBT History Project as part of the Henry Hampton Film Series. The screening will be followed by a discussion featuring Steve Brawley of the St. Louis LGBT History Project and performers Leon Braxton (aka Dieta Pepsi) and Maxi Glamour.

Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, this classic documentary chronicles New York’s drag scene and “house” culture, which provided a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers.

The Henry Hampton Film Series premiered in 2014 and seeks to share documentary films made by minority filmmakers or that depict the stories of often underrepresented groups with a focus on the African American experience.

Henry Hampton (1940-98) was a St. Louis native and 1961 graduate of Washington University. In 1968, he established his Boston-based company Blackside, Inc., that quickly became the largest African-American-owned film production company of its time. Hampton’s works chronicle the 20th century’s great political and social movements, focusing on the lives of the poor and disenfranchised.

The Henry Hampton Collection is housed at Washington University Film & Media Archive. The 35,000-plus items in the Henry Hampton Collection include film and videotape (570 hours of original footage and 730 hours of stock footage), photographs, scripts, storyboards, producers’ notes, interviews, music, narration, posters, study guides, books and other materials.